Form 15G / 15H Eligibility Calculator

What Forms 15G and 15H actually do

When a bank pays you interest above a small threshold, it normally deducts TDS before crediting it. If your total income is below the taxable limit, that deduction is money the bank takes from you only for you to claim back later as a refund — an interest-free loan to the government for the year. Forms 15G and 15H exist to prevent that. They are self-declarations you give the bank stating that your income is below the taxable limit, so it should not deduct TDS on your interest in the first place.

The two forms differ only by age. Form 15G is for residents below 60; Form 15H is for resident senior citizens, 60 and over. The calculator picks the right one for you automatically. Both achieve the same thing — stopping the TDS at source — and both rest on the same core idea: you are declaring that you will owe no tax for the year, so there is nothing for the TDS to be an advance against.

Because they stop tax being collected, these declarations are taken seriously. They are not a way to defer tax or to avoid it; they are only for people who genuinely will owe nothing. Giving one when you do not qualify is treated as a false declaration, which is why it is worth checking your eligibility properly before you sign — exactly what this calculator is for.

The first condition: your final tax must be nil

The condition common to both forms is that the tax on your estimated total income for the year works out to nil. Not low — nil. This is your final tax after the rebate, so it depends on your regime: in the new regime the rebate makes tax nil up to ₹12 lakh of income, and in the old regime up to ₹5 lakh. If your income is within the applicable threshold so that no tax is finally payable, this condition is met.

It is your total income that matters, not just your interest. Salary, pension, rental income, capital gains and interest all go into the estimate, and if the total pushes you into actually owing tax, you cannot give the form — even if the interest by itself would be small. People sometimes look only at their deposit interest and conclude they qualify, when their pension or other income already makes their tax non-nil. The calculator uses your whole income to apply this test correctly.

Getting this wrong is not a harmless mistake. If you declare that your tax is nil when it is not, the bank stops deducting TDS that was actually due, and you have signed a false statement to achieve it. That is an offence that can bring a penalty and, in serious cases, prosecution. The calculator checks this condition first and, if you fail it, tells you plainly to let the TDS be deducted and claim any refund the honest way — by filing your return.

The second condition for 15G that everyone forgets

Form 15G has a second test that Form 15H does not, and it is the one people most often miss. For 15G, in addition to your final tax being nil, your total interest income for the year must be below the basic exemption limit. So even if your tax comes out to nil because of the rebate, you cannot give 15G if your interest alone exceeds the exemption — the two tests are separate, and you must pass both.

This catches people whose income is modest overall but whose interest is substantial — for example someone living largely off deposit interest that exceeds the exemption limit, whose tax is still nil after the rebate. Their tax-nil condition is satisfied, but their interest fails the second test, so 15G is not available to them. The calculator applies both tests and, when the tax is nil but the interest is too high, flags exactly this — the failure mode that trips up the most people.

Senior citizens are spared this second test. Form 15H requires only that the final tax be nil; there is no separate interest-below-exemption condition. This is a genuine relief for older people living on deposit interest, who can give 15H even where the interest is large, provided their overall tax is nil. The calculator marks the interest test "not applicable" for anyone 60 or over, because for them it simply does not apply.

Why an NRI cannot use these forms at all

Forms 15G and 15H are for residents only. An NRI cannot submit either, whatever their income, because the declaration is built around resident taxation and the resident exemption limits. An NRI who signs a 15G or 15H is making a false declaration on two counts — both that they are a resident and, often, that their tax is nil — and banks are alert to it.

This matters because NRIs frequently face heavy TDS on their Indian interest, especially on NRO accounts, and understandably look for a way to stop it. The 15G/15H route is not that way. The correct routes for an NRI are different: apply for a lower or nil TDS certificate under Section 395, which instructs the bank to deduct at a reduced rate reflecting your actual tax, or let the TDS be deducted and reclaim the excess by filing an Indian return, using DTAA relief where the income is taxed in both countries.

The calculator refuses the 15G/15H route for an NRI and points to these correct alternatives, precisely because reaching for the resident form is a common and risky mistake. If you are an NRI wanting to reduce TDS on Indian interest, the lower-TDS certificate is the tool, not a resident declaration you are not entitled to sign.

How and when to submit them

If you qualify, a few practical rules make the declaration actually work. Give a separate form to each bank or deductor that pays you interest — a single form does not cover all your accounts across different banks, and even different branches may need their own. Miss one, and that payer will keep deducting TDS regardless of the forms you gave elsewhere.

Timing matters too. Submit the form at the start of the financial year, before the interest is credited, because a form given after TDS has already been deducted cannot reverse the deduction — you would have to claim that back by filing. And the forms do not carry over: each year is a fresh declaration, so you must renew them annually with every payer. A form given last April does nothing for this year.

Keep in mind that giving the form only stops the deduction; it does not change whether the income is taxable. If, despite your honest estimate, your circumstances change during the year and you do end up with tax to pay, you must account for it when you file. The declaration is a statement of your genuine expectation at the time you sign, not a guarantee, and it should be made in good faith on the numbers you actually expect.

Using this calculator well

Enter your realistic estimated total income for the whole year, not just your interest, because the tax-nil test looks at everything. Be honest about it — the value of this tool is telling you when you do not qualify, so you avoid signing a false declaration that can cost you far more than the TDS you were trying to save. Set your regime correctly, since the rebate threshold that decides "tax nil" is different in each.

If you are under 60, watch the interest figure against the exemption limit, because that second test is the one that most often disqualifies an otherwise-eligible person. If the calculator says your tax is nil but your interest is too high, the form is genuinely not available to you — let the TDS be deducted and reclaim it by filing. If you are an NRI, do not look for a workaround here; use the lower-TDS certificate route the calculator points to.

Finally, treat the thresholds as the current rules and confirm them for your year, and remember that eligibility is only the first step — you still have to submit the right form, to each payer, at the right time, every year. This is a computation to keep you from signing a declaration you should not, and to confirm when you genuinely can stop the TDS — not a substitute for advice where your income is close to the line.